PS Vita

AT&T has announced they will be offering two wireless data plans for the PlayStation Vita console when the handheld launches on February 22. According to the company, neither of the two monthly plans will require a contract.

The first plan will go for $14.99 and provide 250MB of data for use in one month. The second plan will cost $25 and will provide 2GB (8x more than the other plan) of data. These plans come on top of the price of the actual system, which is $249.99 for the Wi-Fi only model or $299.99 for the 3G model.

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Tecmo Koei and Team Ninja have announced the release date for Ninja Gaiden Sigma Plus. The Vita title will be released on February 22, 2012. The PS Vita "launch window title" is an upgraded version of the PS3 title, Ninja Gaiden Sigma, which was released in 2007. With NGS PLUS gamers will be getting new features exclusive to the vita like touchscreen and gyro sensor functionality.

We all knew that this would be official before long. Too much seemingly hard evidence has surfaced pointing to a second LEGO Batman game for it not to be a Thing. And Warner Interactive has now confirmed it. LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes is coming to a gaming platform near you this summer, a press release reveals. That means: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, Windows PC, Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation Vita. No WonderSwan though. Sorry all.

The DC Super Heroes subtitle means that you're seeing more than just familiar faces from TT Games' previous Batman release. Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and Lex Luthor are all confirmed. Who else would you like to see? I'm casting my vote now for the Wonder Twins.

Disaster Report 4 creator, Kazuma Kujo, is working on a new IP for the PlayStation 3 and Vita. Last year his game Disaster Report 4 was canceled after Japan was hit with a devastating earthquake. According to his Twitter, this set back won't keep him from doing what he does best: making video games.

The unannounced game will be a downloadable title and that's basically all we know about it. When a Twitter follower asked about the genre, Kujo replied, "It's a secret."

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C'mon, you HAD to know this was coming. Online Pass tokens are all the rage this year among video game publishers thanks to their used game market-defeating ways. We've already seen a policy instated for Sony's PlayStation 3 games, so is anyone really surprised to learn now that the same will apply to Vita games as well?

After giving Minna no Golf 6 (releasing in the U.S. as Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational) a look, Destructoid learned that an Online Play Ticket would be required for the multiplayer portion of the game. Retail copies of the game will be packaged with the code while the cheaper, download-only versions available from the PlayStation Store will require a separate Online Play Ticket purchase, priced right now at 900 yen (roughly $11.50-- so probably $10 in the U.S.).

The pricing of the retail game versus the pricing of the download plus the play ticket comes to the same amount. So much for PS Store downloads being cheaper than their retail counterparts, eh?

Bad news for the PlayStation Vita in Japan. According to Media Create (Via Joystiq), Sony's innovative handheld unit sold 72,479 units on its second week on the market. The Nintendo 3DS, on the other hand, sold 482,200 units. In Japan, the PSP, Wii, and PS3 all outsold the handheld.

On the software sales charts in Japan, three of the top five games are for the 3DS: Mario Kart 7 (#1), Super Mario 3D Land (#3), and Monster Hunter Tri-G (#4). Where no Vita games appear in the top 20 -- though, as Joystiq points out,this is likely due to both the poor hardware sales and the availability of retail games on PSN at lower prices.

The Vita is scheduled for release in North America on February 22. My question: Will it sell in the US? I've played around with it, and it's really, really cool, but I wonder how it will fare in the crowded market place of handheld devices. What do you guys think?

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Japan got the PlayStation Vita on December 17, but most of us here in the United States -- namely, those who aren't crazy enough to spend big on an import -- will be waiting until the device's February 22 launch (or a week earlier if it's the First Edition bundle you're after). That's okay though if you're a Resistance fan, as the Resistance: Burning Skies Vita game from Nihilistic Software won't be coming until the summer.

There's a playable demo of the game that's been making the rounds at various press gatherings showing off an early scene in which players take on Chimera forces on New York's George Washington Bridge. Sony shared a video of that section on PlayStation Blog as a holiday treat, and you can give it a look right now.

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One of the bigger news items that came out of Sony's E3 press conference earlier this year was the reveal that Dust 514, a multiplayer shooter from CCP Games set within the universe of its EVE Online MMO, would be a PlayStation exclusive. The game is supposed to be coming sometime in 2012, and CCP is accepting beta tester sign-ups as of today.

There's a catch though. The "Mordu's Private Trials" beta is only open to EVE subscribers for now. Registering for access doesn't necessarily mean you'll get in, but not being an EVE Online player means you definitely won't. You can sign up right here or wait patiently in the hopes that a public beta announcement follows soon.

After months of rumors, speculation, informed guesses and wildly inaccurate soothsaying, Sony has come out and confirmed the full launch day and launch window lineup for its PlayStation Vita, as well as the pricing on all launch accessories. The Vita arrived in Japan on December 17 and it's still on track to arrive in the U.S. and Europe on February 22.

You might be pleased to learn that the Vita memory card pricing, previously revealed in GameStop product listings, is not as bad as we once though (but still really just too expensive). The 32 GB card costs $99.99 (instead of $119.99) and the number drops incrementally from there: $59.99 for a 16 GB, $29.99 for an 8 GB and $19.99 for a 4 GB. There are also a handful of "PSN Only" titles among the launch games, including Escape Plan, Hustle Kings, Tales of Space: Mutant Blobs, Plants Vs. Zombies and Super StarDust Delta. Read on for the full list.

2011 was one of the biggest, blockbuster-packed years for gaming in a long time, but looking over the list of games heading to consoles in 2012 is the perfect way to make your bank account burst into uncontrollable fits of weeping and curl up in a little ball in the corner. But in a good way.

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You know whenever you see the word "Katamari" in a headline that things are going to get weird, and today is no exception. The series' first PlayStation Vita appearance, Touch My Katamari, will be a February 22 launch day release. You can use the device's rear touchpad to squeeze and stretch your Katamari as you play. None of that is evident in the above video.

Instead you get an animated short about the King of All Cosmos falling on hard times. And how that fall inspires one useless slob of a Katamari fan to turn his life around. Because that sort of thing happens. Gotta love a new Katamari trailer, amiright?

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Fighting games are experiencing a renaissance, and 2012 is shaping up to be an extremely exciting year for the genre. 2011 was jammed packed with titles that brought players flocking back to their fight sticks including Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and Mortal Kombat, and there's even more to look forward to with fighting games in 2012.

New installments of some of the most beloved fighting game franchises, such as Soul Calibur and Street Fighter X Tekken, will be making their debuts in 2012. Not only will fighting game fans be able to enjoy action on their consoles, but they'll also be able to game on the go with handheld versions of their favorites on the PlayStation Vita.

Read on young virtual kung-fu master, as we take you through a list of the most highly anticipated fighting games of 2012.

The Japanese launch of the PlayStation Vita has been a moderate success, with the new handheld console from Sony pushing 321,000 units in the first two days.

To put it in perspective, the rival Nintendo 3DS sold 371,000 units in the first two days. While the Vita lags behind the 3DS in terms of launch sales, the original PSP was wildly popular in Japan, so time will probably be the test as to whether the Vita's feature set will push it ahead of the 3DS.

The North American launch of the PlayStation Vita isn't until February 22, 2012. Will you be buying one?

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I got to take a peek a few weeks back at Zipper Interactive's upcoming PlayStation Vita launch window shooter, Unit 13. At a glance, the gameplay looks very similar to Zipper's previous work on the SOCOM series. Dig a little deeper, however, and you'll quickly find out that that's not quite the case.

Unit 13 is built to be a portable game, with bite-sized missions that don't really follow any story beyond the basic context you'll need for a given task. This newly released gameplay video, posted at PlayStation Blog, gives an abbreviated look at what I sampled in my Unit 13 preview. Give it a watch; looks like fun.

We first heard rumors of a second LEGO Batman game at the end of last month from an apparently leaked promo image that suggested the next game would be casting a wider net into the DC Comics superhero and supervillain pool. While there still hasn't been a formal announcement about the follow-up from TT Games, you can go ahead and consider today's news a confirmation.

Ads for a video game called LEGO Batman 2 - Super Heroes are printed inside the instruction manuals for LEGO's Super Hero line of playsets, MCV reports. The ads feature images of various DC characters, including Superman and Wonder Woman. They also reveal that the game is coming to Xbox 360, Wii, 3DS and unspecified Sony platforms, presumably both the PlayStation 3 and Vita.

There's no release date or any other information listed, and these LEGO Super Hero sets TECHNICALLY aren't out until next year (some retailers apparently have them already), but I think we can now safely stop thinking of LEGO Batman 2's wider DC Comics focus as a rumor.